Dear Game Developers,

Choose a team

To learn we must look at what has happened in the past and understand why. This brings us to looking at the most watched video games of March on Twitch. The more and more streaming services grow like Twitch the more we start to see trends within video games. It also helps developers see and understand why players like certain games and why they enjoy certain aspects of them compared to others. Think of it this way, unless the content is sponsored, you are giving the raw opinion of that video game as well have presenting how others see the video games too. This is crucial information that video game developers can use when created their games in the future. These opinions of the games, allows the game developers to understand key aspects that game testers just cannot provide. Not only this, but it allows them to rethink how the game can be perceived. Having players opinions which are not bias can help shape games and continue to help the video game industry grow.

Above: A league of Legends background
Image Source: League of Legends website

As you can see the leader of this within watch time is League of Legends, this is by no small margin either. By another 20 million hours in March LOL take the top spot in watch time. But why is this. Due to the constant development, the popular Esports scene and the game being so popular, with a huge player base this indicates its success. However, some of these figures can be considered an anomaly simple down to a spike in players playing and interacting with the game. An example of this is Grand Theft Auto, it is unlikely that you would have seen GTAV at all in the top 10 of watch time in hours, however depending on the streamer who plays this game, means that they have a lot of control over the game’s popularity. By no means, is GTA V a bad game, however recently a streamer with over a million followers known as XQC started playing the game on stream. With someone who averages over 10,000 viewers over hours of gameplay there is no surprise that GTA made it to the top ten.

What game developers can take from streamers, is making a game that is able to be streamed well. Allowing it to be engaging enough for an audience to enjoy someone playing it is key. The success of a game being streamed can only impact the game in a positive way.